The Hockey News To Dean Lombardi – Take Darryl Sutter Off Your List

We get that Los Angeles Kings GM Dean Lombardi felt he had to fire Terry Murray, even though his timing couldn’t have been worse. The guy was one win away from 500 in his career and who knows now whether he’ll ever get another chance to reach the milestone?

But nobody said life in the NHL was fair and that is especially true for NHL coaches. If life were fair, GMs wouldn’t have the carte blanche right to suddenly take somebody’s employment away from them when, in many cases, they are only a small part of the problem. There is a GM who assembled the team and 23 players in the room who are usually every bit as culpable as the guy behind the bench. To suggest this particular case was any different would be a distortion of the facts. As usual in these cases, Lombardi even admitted as much when he announced the change Monday.

But, as we said, we get that the Kings felt they had to fire Murray. Spending perilously close to the cap for players who should be far more productive, being in 11th place in the Western Conference and a shocking 29th in the league in goals scored, well, that’s pretty damning evidence on anyone’s employment record.

What we cannot understand is the name that is floating around as Murray’s replacement. Let’s get this straight. The Kings fired Murray ostensibly because they aren’t nearly creative enough given their personnel and can’t score goals and their answer to that problem is to possibly hire Darryl Sutter?

Apparently that’s the value of knowing the right people in the NHL, not exactly a new concept these days. When all else fails, people in management generally turn to people with whom they have a history. And Lombardi and Sutter have that, going back to their days together with the San Jose Sharks. But if you’re going to hire Sutter, what’s the point of firing Murray in the first place?

Perhaps before the Kings give Sutter his first NHL coaching job in five years, they should consider he has coached three teams during his NHL tenure for a total of nine full seasons and two partial ones. In those nine full seasons with the Chicago Blackhawks, Sharks and Calgary Flames, his teams finished in the top half of the league in NHL scoring exactly once, when his Sharks finished fourth in the league in goals scored in 2001-02. In the other eight seasons, his team finished an average of 20th in offensive production. (That includes one season when the league was comprised of just 24 teams, two when it was 26th, one when it was 27 and one when it was 28.)

Deano is off his fuckin’ rocker if he hires Sutter. That will alienate so many fans it’s just unbelieveable he’s considering this. Perhaps he’s so pissed at the guys in the room he is going to bring him in for the rest of the seaon, just to ride their asses into the ice.

Why not see how Stevens does with the team before making a decision on the new coach. Stevens may be what the team needs right now. Hammond writes that Stevens says it’s not about the X’s and O’s but more about the guts of the game. Sounds good to me. TM was probably so X’s and O’s that the players just glazed over.

I’m fine with Stevens at this point. The last thing they need to do is rush into a replacement. I actually put together an article for Bobby that outlined this. But someone tweeted and the rest is history. So the story got put on the shelf.

Hell I always looked at the signing of Stevens as the ‘backup plan’ just in case this happened. Saw it as good planning on DL’s part, guess you could call it a disaster relief plan.

If he hires Sutter, then this team will be in disaster mode. He may be looking for a coaching replacement. My guess is TL is now also conducting a pre-search screening of GM candidates at this point. Yet another guess of mine is TL making a point of telling Dean that ‘his future rides on the shoulders of Sutter should he hire him’.

I just sent my first e-mail to Tim Leiweke. I doubt it will be read, but I am hoping that he’ll see hundreds of subject lines in his inbox that will ask him to question Dean Lombardi’s next move.

Darryl fucking Sutter?! Really?!? If he is hired, DL is clueless, pure and simple. Yeah, after his calling out of the players publicly last night, I am now in the, “I hate Dean’ fan club. How classless was that?!

What did you expect him to do? Rub their knobs? How’s it “classless” to ream your players when they have under-performed majority of the season? He fired the coach, now the players are on notice. Nothing wrong with that, they needed a swift kick in the ass. Who better to deliver it if not the boss?

Why would the ownership buy into this choice? This is something they’d research before approving. They can’t see this is a huge mistake based on his record? Why fire TM and hire his clone?
DL like the idea of digging his own grave???? With all the choices, why rush. INterview a few candidates….

He’s not DL’s clone. DL could somewhat often actually display a ‘lightness’ of being, a little smile. Be engaging.
The Sutter brothers don’t seem to even know that the word SMILE is somewhere written in the english language.

Boy, I hope for the players sake that they win some games, because otherwise, the little joy that they seem to display on the ice will vanish into the ether.

Since we referred to Drew Doughty as HWSNBP (He who shall not be paid) over the summer, can we refer to Sutter (if the Kings do indeed hire him) as “Quasimodo”?…and I mean the Quasimodo from the 1939 movie, Hunchback of Notre Dame….google it. I tried posting a picture but run into the copyright problem.

Sutter has been in the top 10 offense just once in his entire coaching career, his average has been 20th. How is that an improvement over Murray and his 30th ranked offense? Even Murray had a better track record pre-lockout than Sutter.

Dean is such an ego maniac and he needs to go. How many years of NHL failure does Dean have under his belt? He will never learn that his way does not work.

Now the Kings have a defense only version of Crawford. We saw how well that worked out. AEG needs to come to their senses and get rid of Lombardi.

So disappointed. At least this should be Dean’s last coaching choice for LA. Either they win the cup and everyone is happy or he is fired and everyone is happy.

And that may be at the heart of this. Between what he said (very angrily) to the players yesterday and his interview with Daryl Evans today, he clearly feels it’s not the system. He stressed that the room has the talent to do more and that it wasn’t TM’s fault they failed.
Doe he watch other games? Does he see what a creative system that utilizes the talents of the players can actually do?
And getting a new style of coach, with a more offensively creative , aggresive system would mean he was wrong.
So he’s cutting off his nose to spite his face…and looping a noose in the process maybe.

I prayed we’d give Handzus another year. Poof! Gone — and gone to The Enemy.

I prayed we’d have no injuries during the early part of the season to keep us from gaining momentum. Poof! Mitchell. Poof! Richards. Poof! Martinez (though it gave us a chance to see Voynov at length).

So, Tim Leiweke wrote me back. Yeah, I was pretty shocked! I won’t be able to access my computer until tomorrow, so I can’t copy and paste, but I thought I would give a gist of what he said. He said that Murray was a good man, but it had to be done. As for DL’s next move, he cannot, and will not dictate to Dean what to do. This coaching decision is only for Dean to make. He then thanked me for being as passionate as he was (which according some, TL is very passionate) about the Kings. That was way more than I expected. I thought if anything I would get a generic response….

Nice. That’s good to hear. Totally agree with TL, they probably had to force DL to fire Murray, but they should give DL the leeway to do his job in picking the replacement, otherwise, why hire a GM, just declare yourself the GM and be done with it.

Bottom line, it is not TL’s job to pick a coach. It’s TL’s job to send DL on his way if DL picks poorly.

If thats the case then DL has already passed the test with flying colors. Three coaches, 2 and 1/2 of them poor choices. The good half, TM helping the team to develop, the poor 1/2 cause it wasn’t likely he was gonna lead em to a Cup.

So evidently from multiple sources Sutter is our guy. Well Kings fans, we always have next year *rolls eyes*

I still think Murray needed to go, but this was the wrong choice.

It’s like breaking up with a chick or a wife, but keeping every single one of her mementos around the house for a whole year and pretending like it never happened. You’re trying to move on, but everything around you screams you’re not. The only way to get over someone is to rid yourself of the past and change for the future. Not do the same tried bullshit.

Im confused with the timing of these posts. Were these written before the Kings announced John Stevens as interim coach? Or is Lombardi actually considering Sutter at this moment to replace Stevens shortly?

Listening to Lombardi’s conference calls and all of that, its clear as day to me that the problem, at specific to the topic of coaching, is Lombardi, not Murray. The problem is that its clear from what Lombardi is saying that he does not even realize there were problems with Murray. Its obvious he didnt want to fire Murray, and that he believes its all the players fault, all “mental,” and that somehow the coach bears no responsibility for the players production.

I can guarantee you, he didnt want to fire Murray, he doesnt even think the defensive system was the problem with the scoring, and as a result he will likely hire another similar coach.

Hammond says Kings have requested permission to talk to Sutter.
Are you fucking kidding me? I have always supported DL his moves and his philosophy but if DL hires this guy I will have lost faith in him. This would be a huge mistake and it will be his undoing with ownership since Sutter blows and will lead the team nowhere. That would suck as I think DL is a good GM and the best the Kings have had.

I USED to think DL was a good GM. I’m far less convinced of it now. He cashed in older players for future draft picks, and did to his credit use them to build a defense. But, and it’s a big but, he did it so married to the idea that he left himself no flexibility to grab a talented forward when one might be available

And even if he did draft Toffoli, that would most likely be two years down the road before he either makes the team and/or contributes.

Thats seven years of Dean Lombardi. Brian Burke built a FIRST LINE from Scratch. And he did it in two and a half years.

Responses to his points:
1. Familiarity – If that’s an issue then stick with Stevens for the rest of the season.
2. Winning – So we’re going to achieve this by more not scoring? Okay…
3. Accountability – Well at least there’s that. I just hope the players aren’t baby douches and tune him out because the system is more of the same.

“If you disagree, start at the top and read the article again.”
Seriously, fuck the mayor. All that bullshit about ooo there will be articles second guessing Lombardi’s decision talking like Sutter is already hired. Guess what asshat? The time to weigh in IS NOW, BEFORE anything is finalized.

Dean Lombardi: “This wasnt just this business, which would have been hard enough, this was more than business. Murray is a great man. We’re best buds.”

Jesus Christ. More than business? Youre the GM, hes the coach. Now we know the reason why Murray got to be coach this long when probably he should have been fired weeks ago.

The moment Terry Murray is no longer the best BUSINESS/SUCCESS/WINNING fit for the team, thats the moment you fire him.

But when you are personally attached, like Dean Lombardi clearly was, it clouds judgement.

For me this is another huge red flag on Dean Lombardi. If hes getting personally attached to the coach, it could also happen with the players. It clouds your judgement, and prevents you from making the best decisions for the TEAM. You start thinking about not just the effect on your team, but how it affects the people. Often times what is best for the team is NOT what is best for a given person on that team. Thats why you cant be personally involved with them. You have to be able to make moves like that.

Looks like Lombardi approaches even some of the most elementary aspects of his job wrong.

And in response to this, Lombardi choose TM largely in ‘reaction’ to Crawford. Now he’s doing the same thing… he’s pissed off about TM (as you point out also because of the relationship) so he does another ‘reactive’ choice.

This franchise will not win anything with choices being made in that manner. You know how people say to not go into a relationship when you’re on the rebound from another?

People can say there was no choice. There Is Huge Choice.
You let Stevens be the interim and then reassess it when the off season arrives and you can make a measured decision.

One more thing that Im not sure people touched on when first Ilya Kovalchuk and then Brad Richards declined LA (and everyone else). NO ONE wants to come play for a Terry Murray or Daryl Sutter besides defensive players. Want to know why the whole “east” thing didnt bother Willie Mitchell, Rob Scuderi, etc? Sure, there were other factors, but a big one is because theyre defencemen. Terry Murray’s system is fine for them, even beneficial. But scoring forwards dont want to come to one of the most notoriously defensive systems in the NHL.

This is a systemic issue with the Kings. They want to bring big players to the Kings, but they have coaches which deter those players. Would free agents have wanted to come to the Lakers years ago if they had an uncreative coach who only focused on defense? Who knows because basketball is a different game and defense doesnt really come at the expense of offense as much as it does in hockey sometimes, but you get the point.

So its not just for this season, but for the future, the Kings need a coach that, when Lombardi is calling a player and his agent, on that conference call Lombardi can tell him they will play a fast, fun game, where he will get opportunities to be creative.

Otherwise, the Kings will never bring in enough talent to win, anyway, and the coach wont matter, anyway, at least not in Cup terms. Trust me, if Sutter is hired, no one with offensive talent will come here next offseason.

I dont think that thought has even crossed Lombardi’s mind, unfortunately. Hes oblivious to this, one of the most important consequences to the decisions he makes. Big problem.

Around the 1 minute 30 second mark they talk about the team not being very well built, with lots of holes in the forward group like I said. They also mentioned holes in the defense which I agree with less, but its possible they simply mean Matt Greene, in which case I agree fully.

I have never been so disgusted or ashamed to say I am a Kings fan as I am today.

The blame goes above and beyond Lombardi, the blame now falls on Leiweke for even letting it get this far. How this man (Lombardi) is allowed to make another coaching hire is pure lunacy.

When Lombardi is fired in the next couple of months, Leiweke needs to completely step away from anything to do with the franchise, his handling of this from the leaked news to now this joke of a hire has proven he has no clue what he is doing.

The Kings need to not only bring in a GM with a fresh approach, they need a young and hungry coach and a father figure as president or governor to oversee everything.

AEG interfered and meddled with the team when Taylor was in charge and it failed. They changed things up and they have been hands off with Lombardi. They have zero playoff wins, the worst offense in the NHL and a third retread coach to show for it. Congrats Tim, first you couldn’t stop peeking over DT’s shoulder and now you let an idiot run wild with no controls and this is what you have to show for it.

“Two young defenseman and centers, which is why some people buy into them, but its what you have around that that then makes the difference, and I think some of these guys, if they were on other teams, a good team, would maybe be back a line.”

Exactly what Ive been saying. People playing on the top line in LA besides Kopitar would be on the 2nd line on Cup contenders. I think a lot of people underestimate the importance of that and how much it says about the Kings, and how that alone can basically account for this team not being an elite team in terms of talent.

… Yeah, there’s the key matter of the team’s offensive talent being overrated from the beginning of the season, which is always the problem I had with posts saying “hey all they need is a more offensive-minded coach and poof they’re a top 10 scoring team”. This will NEVER be a top 10 scoring team; not unless they completely forsake the defensive end. They have exactly one top line offensive talent and five second liners. Beyond that, they have Stoll and nobody. There’s little depth and almost zero balance when it comes to scoring up front.

On the defense, the only guys capable of scoring were Doughty and Johnson. Fortunately, Voynov has unexpectedly joined that mix. Beyond Voynov, there’s absolutely nothing they can reasonably expect offensively. Mitchell, Scuderi, Greene – anything they can put up is considered to be a bonus.

So, what you have is a team that’s horribly unbalanced offensively, with little depth to be had. THIS IS THE TEAM LOMBARDI BUILT. Whether people here like it or not, Murray’s system was perfect for this team, and Murray got fired essentially because the team couldn’t or wouldn’t execute it. And, what this is going to do is create a chain reaction – the Kings are perceived, rightly in my mind, as a team that lacks focus and discipline – and Dean’s going to bring in Sutter, a disciplinarian, a hardass, but the same coach strategy-wise. At this point, might as well settle in and realize that the Kings’ game plan isn’t going to change. The level of execution might improve, but don’t hold your breath looking for high scoring games – don’t hold your breath looking for this team to be what it’s not.

It really is getting frustrating constantly hearing how skilled this team is and how they should be a top 10 offense, blah blah blah. I expect this from fans who look at guys like Williams abd see he scored 30 goals four years ago. But these are our own fans who either aren’t watching closely or refuse to acknowledge how bad this team is up front.

The Boston intermission guys even mentioned how slow the Kings forwards are, how they fail to generate any speed or chances off the rush and if a coaching change is really going to effect that. Ofcourse if you mention this on any of the various Kings messageboards or blogs (other than this one) the people with their heads in the sand would just call Jaffe and Kluzak idiots, etc.

It seems a lot of Kings fans refuse to listen to what anyone is saying or acknowledge the facts about this team. It’s just easier to blame the coach, now that the coach is gone they will probably start to blame the players and want trades, the problem is no matter who they bring in it’s not going to work with the way this man has built the team.

For all my wasted words, you said it in a sentence, and perfectly. The Kings have one top line player and five second liners (if that–at times Dustin Brown and Dustin Penner dont even produce or play up to second line standards. (Craig Button called Penner a third line winger.)

Then theres Mike Richards. He played like a 2nd line center, not even an elite one, the first half of this season so far, and then played like a below average first line center (but a 1st line center nonetheless). That averages out to him playing like a good second line center so far, which is what he is.

Even if you call him a top line center, thats still just 2. Chicago has double that.

I have come to the conclusion we will never be a playoff threat with the system that Lombardi wants to play, which this hire proves even more. Anyone who tried to argue that it was Murray who wanted the defense defense defense system has just been proven wrong by Dean’s hiring of Sutter.

This team as it proved last season and the season before, may be able to eek into a lower seed every year. But when the playoffs arrive and you are staring at the other bench and you see Detroit, Chicago, Vancouver, San Jose we are doomed. There is just no way you are going to hold those teams to 1-2 goals in 4 out of 7 games to win a series, that is my big issue with Dean Lombardi, it’s why I believe he has never had any real success as a GM and why I was against his hiring from the start.

Listening to what the Boston guys said during the intermission and what Button and Chase said should be really eye opening to the fans who continue to think he is such a great GM. But as usual certain fans will just call those guys idiots because they refuse to accept the major major issues with the Kings.

it’s not just the idiots though. Surly and Scribe (at least one of them, sorry guys I havent paid enough attention to which of you writes which blog entries yet) believe the Kings are talented enough offensively, too. I think people like us value quality a little more, but a lot of people just look at quantity. Even if the Kings only have 1 top line forward and 5 second line forwards, thats still six full top-six forwards (under that premise, either). Thats more than most teams have, and some people I think overvalue that quantity and dont pay enough attention to the quality (i.e that 5 of 6 are second liners). But obviously they dont feel they’re overvaluing it.

The way I see it though, its exactly like J.T. said. You have basically two second lines in your top -six, which is okay, good at best. But even if it’s good, I dont think anyone would argue that its great. And when you have absolutely nothing in your bottom six behind Jarret Stoll, well it better be great.

So one feeds the other. Is the top-six the problem by itself? Yes and know. Its a problem because its not “great,” and other teams do have great top-six’s. In that sense its a problem. But its not terrible, either, so in that case its somewhat acceptable. But its also a problem if the bottom-six cant score, and it cant, so good isnt good enough.

I would argue that good bottom-six or no, an average top-six is unacceptable for a team with these expectations. Anything less than great, less than Vancouver, Chicago, Detroit, San Jose, etc, is unacceptable. You used to be able to make the excuse that the KIngs make up for it with the best offensive-defenseman pairing than almost anyone else has in Doughty and Johnson, but now Doughty sucks, and even if he didnt, SJ has Boyle and Burns now, other teams have improving defenses, too. St Louis have Shattenkirk and Pietrangelo who are really, really good. Underrated and not yet getting the recognition but theyre good.

The top-six needs to get better.

The bottom-six needs to get better.

And if you cant do both, you at least have to do one.

I felt it was time for Murray to go, but I tried to make it known that losing him was without negatives. I even made the exact same point I think JT or maybe Mike just did, which is that the Kings will probably struggle to score no matter what, so if they lose Murray’s one strength, the defense, I mean they will flat out be the worst team in the league. Maybe that is Lombardi’s logic behind another defensive coach?

I mean you could compare the Kings to Nashville. Good defense, bad offense. Their defense is even contributing on offense more than the Kings’. Some here might not like that comparison because the Predators dont even have one top line player (maybe Erat), but I think that gets balanced out by the fact they have better depth in the third and fourth lines than the Kings (at least last time I checked).

The Kings definitely have the better top-six, but the Predators have the better bottom-six and defense.

So I think that puts them pretty even in terms of offense, no?

And what do we see with the Preds. They have a good defensive system to help cover up their problems on offense, but those defensive systems only get them so far, to the first round.

Only, Barry Trotz gets credit for even getting them there, and is considered one of the league’s best coaches.

Maybe its the same situation with the Kings, just overblown expectations? Maybe the Kings have only made it to the playoffs the last two seasons because they had their own Barry Trotz type of coach in Murray, who helped them win games against more talented teams with his defensive structure.

And if you take Murray away and replace him an offensive coach, it’s like the New Jersey Devils losing Jacques Martin, their offense doesnt improve much anyway because they dont have the talent anyway, and they probably got some extra offense from Murray as a result of being so good defensively and getting the puck back quickly, but their defense is terrible too, so they dont even make the playoffs.

With the Kings, by no means do I think it would be as drastic as what happened with the Devils, but Nashville is much closer to the Kings. I think LA is capable of a little more but theyre right in there.

I have Tuukka Rask as a backup in my one fantasy league. Normally I would play most goaltenders against the Kings because they dont score, but I was hesitant on this one just because every single team comes out and plays with tons of energy and desire the first game with a new coach.

However theyve been playing, you can always count on a good game that first game with a new coach.

… It’s unreal. I’ve gotta say I haven’t seen such poor shooting in a long, long time. The chances were there. The openings and the lanes were there. The opportunities were there.

This, in the end, is all you can ask for as coaches and players. If you have the opportunities, the results will come. The results will work themselves out. The percentages will come into play.

Well, those percentages are definitely not coming into play – not even a little bit. How does one team outshoot another team 20 to 3 in a period and get outscored 1-0? I don’t think I’ve EVER seen that before.

And, it’s not like the Kings are just throwing powder puffs at the net. They’re getting rebounds, they’re getting loose pucks in front of the net, they’re creating screens and pressure down low. That puck is just not going in. And in the moments where the Kings aren’t getting the bounces, they’re not executing other shots, or they are and the goalie is just making great saves.

It’s like the perfect storm of struggling offense; all of the symptoms together. Who are you gonna blame? Murray? He’s not there anymore. Stevens? It’s his first game. Individual players? EVERYONE is not scoring. It’s a team-wide malaise, and like I said – as long as it continues, the team is not going to win – I don’t care if the Lord himself is coaching the team.

I could have an .850 save percentage against the Kings. Watch the puck go from point to point, when you see the D-man take a big windup get real big in the net — arms out, shoulders up, eyes closed. “Thud”, that’s the puck hitting me and bouncing wherever it wants because I don’t care about a fuckin’ rebound as they won’t get it anywhere near the net.

The difference between Dallas and the Kings Drew is that their GM has gotten them almost to the Kings level in just two seasons, with no top picks, and Lombardi has taken 7 years with tons of top picks.

I think people give Lombardi a lot of credit because the team is a playoff team, and so many others arent. But in reality, Lombardi has had 1. way more time to get here than many, and 2. way more top picks than many.

I mean when you think about his high picks, theres Kopitar and Doughty. Some would say they were obvious and he deserves no credit. Yes and know. Ill give him some credit, say for one of them, not both.

Other than that, Hickey? Thats a #3 overall pick. If you actually make an acceptable pick there, there’s your top line winger, at least top 6.

Who am I forgetting? Then theres Myers.

I mean thats the difference right there between the Kings and top teams. Instead of two stars, he got almost nothing. And wouldnt you know, the Kings are now starving for stars, and scoring, and thats where the fuck up begins, all the way back.